College Admission Requirements (High School Grades)

[Rahskie]

My wife and I are having an ongoing battle regarding classes and grades for my 6th grader (daughter). I know it is early, but my wife is putting extreme pressure on the kid to "get straight A's". My daughter has 4 core classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts) + 2 electives for a 6 class schedule. She is in Advanced Social Studies, Science and Language Arts.

Her curriculum, homework, quizzes and tests are off the charts difficult. I am serious when I say that the course load and studying requirements are harder than when I was in high school and some instances college. She has mid terms coming up and is literally studying 7 days a week. She put in 8 hours this past weekend. She is a predominately A student with some B's, but my goodness is it a struggle.

My Question:
My wife believes that you have to have straight A's to get into college and that you need to take 6-8 Advanced classes in high school. I know you have to be smart and have good grades to get into college, but I don't see how a kid can handle the extreme amount of work in high school given what we are seeing in 6th grade. Is it true that you basically have to be straight A's to get into Power 5 colleges???? Are Advanced classes required?

FYI, I am in Georgia Public School System.
Also, I know there are colleges where the academic requirements are lower. I am talking about getting into Clemson, USC, GA, Alabama and others P5 institutions.

 

[wvatiger13]

My son is in 9th and that’s what I’m telling him. Its getting more and more competitive every year

 

[gooddogjudge]

My wife and I are having an ongoing battle regarding classes and grades for my 6th grader (daughter). I know it is early, but my wife is putting extreme pressure on the kid to "get straight A's". My daughter has 4 core classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts) + 2 electives for a 6 class schedule. She is in Advanced Social Studies, Science and Language Arts.

Her curriculum, homework, quizzes and tests are off the charts difficult. I am serious when I say that the course load and studying requirements are harder than when I was in high school and some instances college. She has mid terms coming up and is literally studying 7 days a week. She put in 8 hours this past weekend. She is a predominately A student with some B's, but my goodness is it a struggle.

My Question:
My wife believes that you have to have straight A's to get into college and that you need to take 6-8 Advanced classes in high school. I know you have to be smart and have good grades to get into college, but I don't see how a kid can handle the extreme amount of work in high school given what we are seeing in 6th grade. Is it true that you basically have to be straight A's to get into Power 5 colleges???? Are Advanced classes required?

FYI, I am in Georgia Public School System.
Also, I know there are colleges where the academic requirements are lower. I am talking about getting into Clemson, USC, GA, Alabama and others P5 institutions.

Usc and Bama are easy acceptance when compared to CU and Ga.

 

[uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu]

There's a 0% having a B or two in the 6th grade is going to prevent your daughter from getting into a good school. 0%.

Obviously things get more serious in high school, but even then, my opinion is that the benefits of taking more difficult classes outweigh any worry of a couple Bs. It's better preparation for the SAT/ACT and those first semesters in college.

Long story short, if she's doing well, the advanced classes are absolutely the right call, but I'd be cautious to put a ton of pressure on her or any kid to be perfect. She'll be fine.

Unrelated: It's crazy how we've gotten to this point where anything but an A is looked down upon. Maybe this is more about college, but if you're in a hard ass course and earn B, you definitely know a lot. If everyone gets an A, which seems to be trend, it's completely meaningless.

 

[Trading Tiger]

My wife and I are having an ongoing battle regarding classes and grades for my 6th grader (daughter). I know it is early, but my wife is putting extreme pressure on the kid to "get straight A's". My daughter has 4 core classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts) + 2 electives for a 6 class schedule. She is in Advanced Social Studies, Science and Language Arts.

Her curriculum, homework, quizzes and tests are off the charts difficult. I am serious when I say that the course load and studying requirements are harder than when I was in high school and some instances college. She has mid terms coming up and is literally studying 7 days a week. She put in 8 hours this past weekend. She is a predominately A student with some B's, but my goodness is it a struggle.

My Question:
My wife believes that you have to have straight A's to get into college and that you need to take 6-8 Advanced classes in high school. I know you have to be smart and have good grades to get into college, but I don't see how a kid can handle the extreme amount of work in high school given what we are seeing in 6th grade. Is it true that you basically have to be straight A's to get into Power 5 colleges???? Are Advanced classes required?

FYI, I am in Georgia Public School System.
Also, I know there are colleges where the academic requirements are lower. I am talking about getting into Clemson, USC, GA, Alabama and others P5 institutions.

That might be a little extreme, but now is the time for your daughter to learn to struggle and study. It's much easier to simply maintain good study habits in college than it is to establish good study habits in college.

 

[picapica]

Middle school grades have no bearing on college admissions unless they are being taken for high school credit. This sometimes happens in eighth grade, but colleges care the most about your 10th and 11th courses and grades. Even in 9th grade you can still find your footing.

In general, students who do not possess an exceptional talent—such as being a recruited athlete or receiving state-wide recognition in the arts—and those without unique circumstances, like being a first-generation college student, the child of active-duty military personnel, or qualifying for free or reduced lunch, must reach high academic goals.

To be competitive at an out-of-state college, students should aim for an unweighted GPA between 3.8 and 4.0. They should complete four units of English, Math, Science, History, and Language each year. Additionally, students should take seven Advanced Placement (AP) classes (if offered) and achieve strong grades. With standardized testing, they should try to score 30 or higher on the ACT.

In-state schools are different, and it would depend on your state of residence.

 

[Schema]

I am no expert on this topic. I can only share what I saw when my daughter was going through this. She is a Junior at Clemson now.

Each University has slightly different things they are looking for, and even within that University, there are probably different admissions officers that look for slightly different things.

To me, it seems like there are two main paths.

Path 1 - The kid has outstanding grades that make it hard for the school to say no. Especially, if those outstanding grades were in advanced courses.

Path 2 - The kid has above average grades, but shows that they are a well-rounded individual by participating in team sports, working part time jobs in high school, lots of volunteer work, etc. Also, if their grades didn't start off super strong in early high school, there needs to be a pattern of improvement their Sophmore, Junior, and Senior years.

It is also important to show they aren't afraid to take some advanced courses. I think often getting a B in an AP course is just as, or maybe better, than an A+ in a CP course. They want to see that you challenged yourself.

For my daughter, she had an A in every class her Junior and Senior years, but there were several Bs her Freshman year and a couple her Sophomore year. So, she showed a pattern of improvement. Her school didn't offer as many AP courses as a lot of schools, but she did take four while in high school and she was able to enter college with credits for all of those after the exams. She also was in track and field her final two years, she had a part time job at a grocery store chain, she had a leadership role in her church, and she volunteered a lot. These things got her into Clemson. There were no scholarship offers beyond the SC Life, like there were from many other schools she applied to, but they did accept her.

Hopefully, that helps.

 

[cpavlish]

My wife and I are having an ongoing battle regarding classes and grades for my 6th grader (daughter). I know it is early, but my wife is putting extreme pressure on the kid to "get straight A's". My daughter has 4 core classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts) + 2 electives for a 6 class schedule. She is in Advanced Social Studies, Science and Language Arts.

Her curriculum, homework, quizzes and tests are off the charts difficult. I am serious when I say that the course load and studying requirements are harder than when I was in high school and some instances college. She has mid terms coming up and is literally studying 7 days a week. She put in 8 hours this past weekend. She is a predominately A student with some B's, but my goodness is it a struggle.

My Question:
My wife believes that you have to have straight A's to get into college and that you need to take 6-8 Advanced classes in high school. I know you have to be smart and have good grades to get into college, but I don't see how a kid can handle the extreme amount of work in high school given what we are seeing in 6th grade. Is it true that you basically have to be straight A's to get into Power 5 colleges???? Are Advanced classes required?

FYI, I am in Georgia Public School System.
Also, I know there are colleges where the academic requirements are lower. I am talking about getting into Clemson, USC, GA, Alabama and others P5 institutions.

First child?

 

[coop#]

Don't sweat it. While college admission is getting tougher, there are also a lot more ways for women (hot) to make a living these days

 

[KtCarney14]

I’d mainly focus on having her learn good time management and studying techniques at this stage. The grades in middle school don’t really matter and I know my mom was on my ass starting in middle school about grades (mid-late 2000s) and by junior year it stopped resonating.

I know it’s gotten exponentially more competitive since I was coming out, but if you can lay a good foundation now and wait to apply too much pressure now, it should set her up a lot better for HS and beyond.

 

[MisterWorst]

Like others have said, the big thing will be proven success in upper-level courses in high school. If your goal is an Ivy League or adjacent school (Stanford, Emory, Johns Hopkins, etc) then yeah, you want As and to either be or very close to school valedictorian. Other elite, out of state schools are going to be harder to get in as well - think Michigan, Texas, UNC, etc, so you'll want those high school grades in advanced classes to be high as well. Being instate in UGA you'll be set for Tech and UGA, both of which are really good schools. There are also programs where you can get instate tuition by getting certain ACT/SAT scores, living within X miles of a university, or taking a major in an out-of-state university that isn't offered by any schools in-state, but that's all going to differ by university.

But there are also ways to get around that - I got a B in AP Chem which was by far the most difficult class I ever took in high school, and then got a 5 on the AP Exam. So an admissions counselor looking at that would know that my B is worth more than an A in some instances if the other kid didn't do as well on the AP Exam. Definitely had friends in other schools who got As in all their APs and then got 1s or 2s on the exam because they weren't actually prepared for the exam. Same thing happened to me in AP Stats - got an A and then took the exam and found out my teacher only covered the first 2/3rds of the material she was supposed to and got a 2.

But don't put tons of pressure on your kid right now. She seems to have good study habits and all but don't be telling her it's an A or nothing or you'll be paying for therapy in a few years when she flames out. The best grades are the ones good enough to get you to where you want to be.

One thing I do wish someone had told me going into my freshman year of high school was that I was smart enough to get into college, but needed to put in extra effort if I wanted to get scholarships. My junior and senior year grades in more difficult classes were miles better than the ones my freshman and sophomore year because I didn't take classes all that seriously and could half-ass my way into high Bs and low As. Also played waaaaaaaaaay too much Modern Warfare 2 (I shoulda been a streamer smh).

 

[DFan]

I have a few kids so I understand the pressure. College is insanely competitive these days.

That said, a well rounded kid with confidence, emotional intelligence, and work ethic will come out ahead in the long run vs someone just making a 4.0.

I’d encourage your wife to take a deep breath and not burn your daughter out. Helping nurture her intrinsic motivation is the path.

 

[PawJourney]

My wife and I are having an ongoing battle regarding classes and grades for my 6th grader (daughter). I know it is early, but my wife is putting extreme pressure on the kid to "get straight A's". My daughter has 4 core classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts) + 2 electives for a 6 class schedule. She is in Advanced Social Studies, Science and Language Arts.

Her curriculum, homework, quizzes and tests are off the charts difficult. I am serious when I say that the course load and studying requirements are harder than when I was in high school and some instances college. She has mid terms coming up and is literally studying 7 days a week. She put in 8 hours this past weekend. She is a predominately A student with some B's, but my goodness is it a struggle.

My Question:
My wife believes that you have to have straight A's to get into college and that you need to take 6-8 Advanced classes in high school. I know you have to be smart and have good grades to get into college, but I don't see how a kid can handle the extreme amount of work in high school given what we are seeing in 6th grade. Is it true that you basically have to be straight A's to get into Power 5 colleges???? Are Advanced classes required?

FYI, I am in Georgia Public School System.
Also, I know there are colleges where the academic requirements are lower. I am talking about getting into Clemson, USC, GA, Alabama and others P5 institutions.

My 3 sons are 10 years graduated from college and all 3 received academic scholarships (Clemson, Ohio State & Indiana University (their respective dream destinations and 25% of the CFP Top 12). Clemson kid aced everything - as many AP courses and advanced math and language allowed; myriad of activities; and 1 year of As as a dual enrolled at Georgia State his Sr HS. B1G kids didn't give a crap about class rank so had As & a few Bs but blew the charts of the ACT. Two are engineers one is business and all graduated with top honors. They loved college more than HS.

I have no idea about what works this decade but it's like football, the student controls his/her destiny. If you stack the deck, you up your odds. If you gamble, you might win/loss. The landscape is the same for all kids unless you're a super donor (i.e., football complex named after your family, or your kid has super talents (i.e. Sammy Brown)).

The habit of working hard is a lifetime gift...but so is a nervous breakdown. Remember, your kid isn't you so know your kid and help your kid set achievable expectations and goals. It's all about your kid.

 

[Dabofan]

Let the kid be a kid!!! College is a reward for your hard work, not a punishment. Your kid can take regular classes, not alot of these bull shit liberal focused advanced placement/honors classes and still get in. All those do is totally stress your kid out and they already have a ton of social issues and pressures in middle school and high school as it is. I have found that most of the work in those classes is just busy work and no real extra learning. They also are major left leaning type classes that force social issues into the daily work from time to time. It just takes up more of their time which could be good or bad depending on what type of kid you have and the teacher you get. I couldn't stand 90% of the advanced/honors teachers my first kid had. They made him do tons of liberal projects about social issues where you simply couldn't go against your teachers philosophy or you would get a bad grade. It pissed me off big time, now my daughter is experiencing the same thing in English and history. The school system is broken because of the liberal thinking IMO. All anyone cares about anymore are what pronoun to call so and so, how not to offend someone, etc. My middle daughter is super smart and wants to do the honors/advanced classes and we have let her, but now she is running into the same thing as a junior that my son ran into and she doesn't want to do them anymore. Our youngest son, we have encouraged him to do well in school but we are NOT pushing ANY honors/advanced placement type programs because of the issues we have run into with our first 2. It is your call, but really pay attention to your kid. It is our job to push our kids, but be careful what you are pushing them into. Colleges are getting so expensive and liberal anyway that kids are starting to choose other paths anyway. I have helped numerous nieces and nephews gets jobs or start their own businesses right out of high school. 90% of them are doing well and making triple digit salaries before their counterparts get out of college with 200K in debt. The American dream doesn't have to involve college my friends. Most of the richest Americans didn't go to college.

 

[StSimonsIslandTiger]

My wife and I are having an ongoing battle regarding classes and grades for my 6th grader (daughter). I know it is early, but my wife is putting extreme pressure on the kid to "get straight A's". My daughter has 4 core classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts) + 2 electives for a 6 class schedule. She is in Advanced Social Studies, Science and Language Arts.

Her curriculum, homework, quizzes and tests are off the charts difficult. I am serious when I say that the course load and studying requirements are harder than when I was in high school and some instances college. She has mid terms coming up and is literally studying 7 days a week. She put in 8 hours this past weekend. She is a predominately A student with some B's, but my goodness is it a struggle.

My Question:
My wife believes that you have to have straight A's to get into college and that you need to take 6-8 Advanced classes in high school. I know you have to be smart and have good grades to get into college, but I don't see how a kid can handle the extreme amount of work in high school given what we are seeing in 6th grade. Is it true that you basically have to be straight A's to get into Power 5 colleges???? Are Advanced classes required?

FYI, I am in Georgia Public School System.
Also, I know there are colleges where the academic requirements are lower. I am talking about getting into Clemson, USC, GA, Alabama and others P5 institutions.

Grades don't matter until the 9th grade unless there is some unusual high school credit earlier. A few B's are fine and she should have extracurricular activities and normal social and personal life. Pushing to develop good study and school habits are fine but be reasonable.

Admission to UGA and GT are tough and competitive and kids do need to take some AP classes and challenging courses and have very good SAT or ACT scores. Admissions to schools like GA Southern and Valdosta State and many other state schools are easy- you can get in with dadgum C's. Georgia College and Georgia State are in the middle. UofSC and Alabama and Ole Miss and Tennessee are "fallback" schools with not so competitive admissions for those who want a large university experience but cannot get into UGA or GT from your state.

 

[IP Freely_43]

I agree with @DFan and @Dabofan. I also have kids in the GA public school system (Oconee County. My wife and I discussed this and we agreed not to push the kids too hard. You are only a kid for so long. We want them to enjoy HS and not be stressed out by academics. Enjoy being a kid, hanging out with friends and having limited responsibility. They have the rest of their lives to be adults.

We taught our kids responsibility, work ethic and perseverance. Some of took, how much is TBD 😁.

 

[scott in nashville]

I pushed my son like this (yes, he’s the oldest) and he’s getting his first B as a junior in HS in honors Pre-Cal. At first I thought it was a bad thing, but now I’m seeing that it really bugs him that he got the B.

Maybe he needed to lose to Syracuse to win the Natty in the end.

 

[TequilasForLoss]

When I got to Clemson, I realized I'd failed to build good study habits built in high school and it was killing me. I had bullshv!ted and coasted my way to super good high-school grades to get into Clemson and UF (but not GT, I wasn't a valedictorian or anything), not that I had the marks that would get me in any of them these days. By comparison, my nephew just had fantastic grades at a very good private school and didn't get into his top choice of FSU. Anyway, my main point is that my lack of studying skills nearly killed me every Finals Week, but I got that sheepskin somehow. I think the study habits should lead to making nearly all As, and while middle school GPAs won't count they're a good litmus test for whether or not your study habits are working for you. The process and the results both matter, like your defense will fail if your offense keeps them on the field all day.

I'd try not to make it a pressure cooker at that age though. Build toward something. Heck, in hindsight I wish I'd just gone to community college and become an electrician, but that's mostly because my chosen career field withered and I've been adapting ever since. There are a lot of ways to become a successful adult that don't require a four-year degree straight out of high school, but they all require a way to get your "homework" done and continue learning as an adult in your career path. So without knowing anyone's full situation, I'd recommend treating studying and grades as a foundational skill of acquiring knowledge, rather than an everything's-weighing-on-this pain point.

 

[98Tiger22]

I made average grades in high school, had fun, played sports, and spent most of my time with friends. I wasn’t smart enough to get into Clemson straight out of high school so I went to Greenville Tech for one year. Finished one year with 35 transfer credits, 3.8 GPA, and applied for admission into Clemson for the following Fall.

Got my acceptance letter about two weeks later. Saved money in the process. I’d personally recommend this path, but if she’s smart enough to get in out of high school, that’s awesome! They’ve made standards for acceptance insane these days, no way I would have ever gotten in straight out of high school. Good luck to ya’ll, and I am positive she will have no issues getting in!